‘Being there’ the experience of shadowing a British Muslim Hospital chaplain

by Sophie Gilliat-Ray (Cardiff University) published in Qualitative Research Volume 11 Number 5 (October 2011)

Abstract

This article critically evaluates ‘shadowing’ as a qualitative research method.

Sometimes described as the relatively straightforward opportunity to observe and record the actions and behaviours of a single individual during the course of their everyday working activities (McDonald, 2005), this article demonstrates that shadowing is often a highly disruptive and to some extent performative undertaking, both for the researched and for the researcher. Yet, it is precisely the disruptive potential of shadowing that makes it a valuable data collection method, offering the opportunity to gain significant insights that would be largely unobtainable via any other method.

Following a brief discussion of shadowing as a research tool and an introduction to the ‘Muslim Chaplaincy Project’, the remainder of the article describes the experience of shadowing an individual Muslim hospital chaplain in detail. What becomes apparent is that shadowing has the potential to blur into other qualitative data collection methods (e.g. interviewing), especially when those we are shadowing have developed roles that engage them in various discursive communities, and a range of cooperative networks. Shadowing such individuals complicates our understanding of how this method operates in practice.

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